Portable grease guns are used throughout industry to provide a supply of pressurized grease to lubricate vehicles and myriad types of machinery. In the typical portable hand held grease gun, a grease gun body includes a screw mounting to which a grease “barrel” (a tube having one closed end and an open end) containing a quantity of grease or a grease cartridge may be attached to provide a source of grease for the grease gun. When the grease within the cartridge is exhausted, the barrel may be unmounted and a new cartridge inserted and the barrel remounted to the screw mounting of the grease gun body. Grease guns of this type are limited to use with a self contained grease barrel mounted to the grease gun body and carried with it. Such grease guns are useful when the user will need to move around a wide area to lubricate equipment zerks.
Other grease guns are provided with a coupling to a flexible hose connected to a grease supply which may rest on the ground or another surface and need not be carried by the user. Typical of such a grease supply is a container of bulk grease such as a pail or bucket or keg equipped with a hand operated or foot operated pump. As grease is needed in the grease gun body, the user pumps a charge of grease from the grease pail by operating the manual pump, thereby driving a supply of grease into the compression chamber of the grease gun. Existing grease guns of this nature allow for coupling to a grease hose only. This type of grease gun body is useful when the user may remain in a limited area while applying lubricating grease.
A need exists for versatile grease gun body which may be supplied by a grease barrel carried with the gun or by a larger supply of grease carried in a grease pail, barrel or keg and supplied to the grease gun barrel by a hose which may be coupled to the grease gun body.
The foregoing problems are addressed by the present grease gun invention.